Alternate Portals
by YinWolvern
Summary: What if Rattmann had never escaped? What if Chell wasn't the one to defeat GLaDOS? Jacob Trayner, the next on the list of test subjects, will find himself waking to take on a lot more than he signed on for. Angela Damon, a scientist and childhood friend of Jacob, is his only hope of finding out just what is going on. Could she have left something behind to help him defeat GLaDOS?


Taking a deep breath, Jacob fixed his eyes forward and took a running start towards the wall in front of him. He would have to time it just right if he didn't want to fall into whatever toxic mixture was settled at the bottom of the pit he was leaping across. He had done this many times before, it was just all about timing. The clicking of the long fall straps on his legs kept him focused. Taking these damn tests were never easy, he still wondered why he ever chose to do this, but he always knew why.

The portal gun weighed heavily on his right arm, his fingers wrapped tightly around the hold inside of the machine. It hummed softly, illuminating orange to show he had already place a portal on the ceiling exposed on the other side of the wall. Through the space above the wall, he could see the glass from the room where the scientists were watching him test. So far, he thought he had been doing exceptionally well. He hadn't ever failed any of them and did them fast, or so he believed.

Jacob was 26, in great conditions mentally and physically, and had been a test subject for about two years. Throughout those years, he had succeeded in being in quite a few tests, strengthening himself for each and every next one that was thrown at him. He'd pass each and every one with flying colors. He'd make sure of it.

Coming to the edge, he took the death defying leap. Below him, the toxic mixture bubbled and steamed, ready to drown him and scorch at his skin. But like hell he was going to let that happen. Just as his feet left the cool, smooth tiled ground, he pointed the portal gun in front of him and shot a blue liquid out of the devices end. The blue portal appeared just as his body came into contact with the wall. His body was flipped and his sense of balance was thrown off as the change in direction from the portals was applied. Instead of moving forward, he was now moving down, falling to the ground and catching himself. He always had a headache after things like that. It was a complete shift in his equilibrium.

When his head finally cleared, he looked up to the glass where the scientists overseeing his testing were making their calculations. But he was only looking at one of them. He could see her clearly. A young woman his age with long black hair that was put up into a bun for uniform purposes. Her clear blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of thin rimmed glasses, which he knew she only needed for reading purposes. Her name was Angela Damon, a scientist who had begun working at Aperture Science at the age of 21. And who had been his best friend since they were children. Once a shy, cold hearted little girl, she had shown herself to be much more than that. Intelligent, caring, and a girl with a sense of humor.

Now he remembered why he became a test subject. A soft smile came to his lips when her gazed turned to look out the window, looking away from the clip board she had been writing on. Despite the distance, he could see her smile. Warmth spread through his face, which he ignored and raised his hand grasping the portal gun to offer her a wave and a grin. Yeah, now he remembered _exactly_ why he decided to work here too. He wasn't smart enough to be a scientist, but he was fit enough to be a subject. He had worked hard to get into the facility. While being a scientist or, hell, even a maintenance person seemed to be hard, becoming a test subject had become easier than he had thought. All he had needed to be was healthy, and he was just fine in that area.

He and Angela had been separated for quite a few years after she had been accepted to a place called Aperture. There was so little he could find on it, but did find that test subjects were needed for such a place. For what, he didn't care. He had taken the chance to see Angela again, for fear that it would be so many more years before he could see her again. He wasn't going to take that chance.

* * *

Watching him run these tests always put her on the edge. She'd hold her breath without realizing it, gripping her clip board with enough force she felt it would break in two. These were dangerous tests, ones he could get injured from so easily. She wondered every day why he did such a stupid thing as become a testing subject. Then again, she had known him since they were kids, so it shouldn't have surprised her that he did such stupid things. Being a scientist at the facility for 5 years, she had barely ever heard from him. She and the others in her facility weren't exactly allowed to leave for the night and come back the same day. The two had been close all of their lives, from kindergarten, through high school, and so on. Being away from one another for so long had put a damper on their friendship, one which she thought would leave him to forget about her sooner or later.

That same childhood friend went on to surprise her as she was put in charge of going through files and a familiar face greeted her in a folder. The name Jacob Trayner was printed in bold above the files picture. A head of messy, shaggy blonde hair that looked to have been left untrimmed for months, grass green eyes, and a smirk that held nothing but a look of cockiness. Yep, it was the same boy she had left behind when she had been hired except he had grown up considerably. A part of her had been excited to see such a familiar face, but at the same time, a fear weighed on her shoulders. Someone she cared about would be put through tests she knew to be dangerous, life threatening even. Despite her calling him, trying to talk him out of becoming a test subject, he had gone through with entering the facility. In the end, Angela had decided that if he was going to be going through all of this, she would make sure she was put on to watch his testing.

For the two years he had tested the portal gun, she had made sure to oversee them. Even if it was against regulations, if he got himself hurt, she was going to make sure she would get him out of there before anything worse would happen to him.

Seeing him drop through the orange portal in the roof made her finally sigh with relief. _That boy is going to be the death of me. _She thought but finding herself smile down at the man standing down below her. Angela turned to her clipboard, taking notes of how long it had taken him to run through the entire test, what he had done to achieve the completion of the test, and his condition after he finished. Just behind her, a colleague was monitoring Jacob's heart beat and brain waves, the data that was gathered from the patches placed on his chest and temples. They were trying to see if going through the portals messed with any brain waves or affected the heart. So far, Jacob didn't seem to have any problems with either of them. The small room was silent, only the sound of the beeping from the computer and the scrawling of the pencil on her clipboard. A

After a moment of writing, she felt eyes on her and looked down again to the room below where her friend stood. A small trickle of sweat on his forehead showed he was tired, ready to be done for the day but still sporting a familiar grin that portrayed the opposite, ready to keep on going if he had to. When he waved to her, she returned it, smiling to return his.

"You two really are close, huh?" Her colleague Daniel spoke, turned around in his swivel chair to look at her with a raised eyebrow. Maybe he was the only one who knew she interacted in such a way with a test subject. Maybe there were other people who knew besides him. Either way, she didn't think it would be something she would deny. Why should she? It wasn't her fault he had decided to become a test subject...was it?

Laughing softly, she shook her head and set her clipboard down. "You could say that. That knucklehead has been trailing my coat tails since before I can even remember. I wasn't all that friendly of a kid but he never stopped trying to get my attention. Now that he's a test subject, he can't get enough of scaring me half to death and scaring me." She couldn't count how many times he had faked an injury or used the portal gun to cause a prank to worry her. It would irritate her, but when it turned out he was alright, she was always more relieved than angry.

"You might as well tell him he's done for the day." He replied, passing her the mic that would let her contact Jacob in the room.

Nodding, Angela took the mic and pressed the small button at the base of it. "Alright, good work on this test. That was the last one for the day, you can go ahead and leave the testing area. Place the portal gun on the stand and proceed to your Relaxation Vault, I shall meet you there shortly." Below, Jacob waved his portal gun again, turning to the small stand that was being raised from the floor. She watched as he took off the apparatus and placed it on the stand, where it clipped into place and began to be pulled through the floor. Underneath the tiles, the machinery of the building would sort the gun back into a group of them and be placed into a batch for the next set of test subjects.

Just as Angela made her preparations to leave, Daniel laughed softly and began loading the file for another subject. "That boy is gonna be the death of you, y'know that right?" He asked, glancing back at her.

"Yeah, I know. But he always seems to make things an adventure, one way or another." With a small smile at her friend, she left the small booth and made her way to meet with Jacob.


End file.
